Refining Searches and Research

On Monday and Tuesday Mrs. Bouchard and I observed that many of you were having trouble finding information on some of the topics using the databases (Facts on File, Ebsco, etc.). Twiggy was particularly problematic.

This issue can be remedied with a refined Google search.

The research process depends heavily upon finding legitimate scholarly sources, and when used properly, Google can help greatly with this process. Here is a simple trick. When searching for something on Google, simply follow the search terms with the following:

site:.edu

This simple command will limit Google's search results to university and college-hosted sites only.

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At this point all of you are researching people, events, substances, or ideas that revolutionized an aspect of America life in the 1960's. If someone or something is revolutionary, it has undergone and caused some sort of dramatic change. As you peruse your sources and begin the note-taking process, you need to zero in on change.

For the sake of an example, let's imagine that you are researching my musical hero, Bob Dylan. In your paper, it would be necessary to analyze how Dylan himself changed and how he transformed popular music and art in the 1960's.

This is what Bob Dylan looked like in 1962:

And this is what he looked like in 1966:

In four short years he transformed from a Dust Bowl-esque, acoustic-guitar-wielding folky into an electric guitar playing, polka-dotted besotted, psychedelic rocker.

Bob went from writing protest sings inspired by the civil rights movement to abstract, impressionistic, nasally sung rock and roll tunes.

Your analysis of Bob's career would need to focus on this change.

Hope this helps.

Peace and love,
Clark